They actually did not remove the exclusivity; they just created a system of sub-agents for Henley.

Henley would have hired them anyway, and was in the process of doing so. Now they will first have to pass Henley’s approval and then receive a stamp from Identity Malta.

The exclusivity is totally there still. It is just another way of fooling the people of Malta to claim that it is not there.

They did not need Henley’s expertise.

They could have just invited 10 experts for a two day roundtable discussion about the matter, and would have learnt everything. All it would have cost is a hotel meeting room, coffee, and snacks.

Paying 200 million Euros for this seems a bit excessive.

Harry,

Henley tried to do a snow job on Antigua, but the government there saw the light AFTER FIRST SIGNING a contract with Henley. It renegotiated in a tough way and got out of the contract, with certain penalties of course, things like not speaking badly of Henley etc.

Anyway, Henley went to all the developers in Antigua and tried to strong-arm them into exclusive arrangements with them for 15% or more commission, with advance payments. Same thing, I am sure, is going to happen in Malta, or is already happening, and the developers will agree and cut out the local realtors completely, as they will have no choice.

The fact is that in both St. Kitts and Antigua 95% of real estate purchasers buy their real estate through their citizenship consultant. I know this because I do this.

We have so much control over the buyers that I decided to build a 60-home residential development that I will sell to citizenship buyers as well. The local estate agents are simply not in the game as they do not provide the main service needed, which is the citizenship. Real estate is secondary.

Arguing about the price of prostitution never changed its nature. My heart does not bleed for wannabe agents unable to afford indemity insurance and an annual fee. None of us can afford to have a double-dealing prime minister, yet some are content as long as they rake in a bit of profit.

@ Nuri Katz:

It is all about commissions.

It is now up to the Financial Services sector as a united group to counter this. It was evident from the first murmurs that this was a strike designed to effect the Financial Services sector.

It was evident from Joseph Muscat’s repeated insistence on a promise here not to touch this sector, that all he was doing was applying a fresh coat of lipstick to keep that crowd behind him through the elections.

But the Financial Services sector keeps mum about it. The allure of participation more attractive than the bird in hand? or is it relatively too young as a sector and unused to dealing first hand with these tactics?

Those who would have had first hand experience of Mintoffian tactics were brought on board the scam early, the most notable as an envoy, not that it would have made much difference to the morals involved.

Unfair competition.

Exclusivity to one party unchallenged before a spineless Financial Services sector.

When it’s too late, it will be too late to have found a voice.

Why is the Financial Services sector not screaming out at the the European Commissioner for competition? It has all the elements it needs to pick up the baton.

But no. Too tucked-in out of habit and category to stick its neck out. Typical of the people in its make-up. Knowledgeable about every dot, comma and cent read over and balanced before despatch of communication to its clients, but missing the forest for the leaves.

Go through Joseph Muscat’s parliamentary involvement as an EP in 2006. He was the rapporteur on the issue of Financial Services. The blurring – yes, that far back for those who remain incredulous – is by his “own” hand. But the route devised is laid out as clear as crystal.

Those who refuse to look and see don’t yet realise that the tightening is double-ended.

Those for whom money is secondary to principle have long since seen it.

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush, but without instigation for control at right-now immediacy, it’s fast becoming what it was: just a vision.

We cannot afford to be complacent about ANYTHING.

Same with Shiv Nair. Why isn’t there a tail on him?

I was in another European airport last week, where the group alighting from the plane was “mistakenly” taken to a Schengen passport control area. The nationals of the country we’d arrived in were vociferous in asking the passport control staff why we should be checked, as was I.

The passport control staff then double-checked by phoning someone and said we were brought that way in error.

Is it pure coincidence that this is the first such routing mistake experienced in decades of travel?

Something fishy happening.

There is no such thing as coincidence.

There is obviously lots more to this than meets the eye. It should have been the easiest thing for Muscat to fire Henley & Partners as he should have done were it a normal consultancy relationship.

Their remit was to handle this ‘programme” (not ‘scheme’, said Kalin) in a manner so as to protect Malta’s reputation. They couldn’t have failed more catastrophically if they tried.

Firing them would have been the obvious thing to do. They could have been Muscat’s perfect scapegoat, his ‘Get out of Jail’ card. Yet he did precisely the opposite and entrenched them even further, creating more opportunity for them with the property and investment requirements.

Even removing their exclusivity was a half-baked exercise and designed to keep most out. One needs to have a professional indemnity insurance of Eur 1 million and pay a licence fee every year.

This may be fine for the big firms like PWC, Deloitte and a few of the bigger law-firms who have that professional indemnity anyway, and several clients to spread the cost over too, but it is quite an expense for those who may have the occasional client, if at all.

It is nonsensical as the level of risks are totally different.

Professionals should be left to assess their own level of risks not have this imposed on them so as to limit the players in the field. So much for a socialist government – jghin il-kbir u jghafas iz-zghir.